The Rap World Revolves Around Migos On ‘CULTURE’
The popular Atlanta trio’s sophomore album builds on their trademark sound.
The ascension of Atlanta rap trio Migos has been fast and steady. Since their breakout single Versace in 2013, the group has consistently released mixtapes, along with their debut album, that featured strong songs that kept them in the limelight.
While the group themselves achieved mass meme status with the invention of “the dab”, it wasn’t until late last year though that they would surpass the popularity of their first hit with the Lil Uzi Vert-featuring banger Bad & Boujee. From that point on, including their special shout out from peer Donald Glover at this year’s Golden Globes, the anticipation for their second album, CULTURE (or C U L T U R E, but I’ll probably use the former for the review to spare my poor spacebar), was through the roof. They further raised interest with the second single from the album, another hit titled T-Shirt.
Now, is it a little confusing that Migos have a song titled T-Shirt like fellow Atlanta rapper Future? Yeah. Is it very confusing that both songs are produced by Nard & B? Hell yeah. But if that doesn’t bother you, then you’re in for a treat as T-Shirt is another smash success. My one issue with it though is that the flow composition gets extremely repetitive, and to say that about a group that has ridden to success on their repetition is saying something. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was just one of the rappers, but for all three of them to follow the same vocal pattern verse after verse after verse, it became hard just listen to the music and turn up.
After two successful lead singles, I was excited for what the rest of the album would entail when I finally got to listen to it in full today, and it did not disappoint. Migos have developed a sound that not many artists can mimic, and while some may try and get close, no one can match their success at doing so.
The big song from the album that’s sure to be the group’s next breakout hit is the 2 Chainz-featuring Deadz. It’s controlled by a powerful, trunk-rattling beat from Cardo that Migos and 2 Chainz playfully rhyme over. It builds over the chorus to every verse and you can’t help spend the whole song in joyous anticipation for everything that comes next. I honestly had a smile occupy my face goofily for its entire four and half minute duration.
Another song that’s amazing for entirely different reasons is the Zaytoven-produced Big On Big. It’s a classic beat from the famed producer, beautiful keys on stringy synths. A part of what makes it special though is it’s overall focus, a rare feat for the group. Normally scattering verses about drugs, women, and money for a few minutes through all songs, this one has a main focus on their meteoric rise and responding to those who try to show them up by showing off how much better they’re doing. It also features auto-tune assisted singing from the group, which I’m always a fan of.
The album has plenty of other hits, like the sure to be strip club anthem All Ass and classic mixtape Migos songs Brown Paper Bag and Get Right Witcha. Another thing I’m a fan of is the placement on the album of it’s guest spots. They come at the perfect times, just when we might be getting accustomed to Migos’ flows, and possibly losing interest because you can only listen to the same style of song so many times, someone comes in that changes the pace and makes the music immediately interesting again. This definitely happens on Slippery with the appearance of Gucci Mane. Again, this is not to say the song is bad, but if you’re listening to the album front to back, then I think it would be impossible to listen to all the way through without these features. There’s just not enough separating the songs and they would feel like one giant song. The switch-ups makes the music more available to constant listening.
Not every song on the album reaches it’s potential though. Some are downright bad. What The Price is the most devastating Travis Scott and, in turn, Kid Cudi bite I’ve ever heard. The same could be said about the song Kelly Price, which at least has the respect to feature Scott. Despite that, both songs borrow this tired song style that got old way back in 2011 on Owl Pharaoh. There’s nothing creative present that makes it interesting in any way and instead they’re tracks I barely could stomach listening to all the way through. The production on album closer Out Yo Way sounds like it would’ve made more sense under emotional lyrics from Drake. And please stop with the DJ Khaled features. I understand the importance of popular mixtape hosts and the exposure they can give to an artist or group, but Khaled no longer really does that and just makes albums that equate to “Now This Is What I Call Rap, Volume Whatever”.
The biggest accomplishment the album achieved, which is great and at the same time saddening, was exposing the talent levels of each of the members of the group. Quavo had a huge year in 2015 and 2016 and rightfully earned the title from many as “the Beyoncé of Migos”. So the question many had in anticipation of the record was who would be revealed to be the group’s Kelly Rowland? Taking advantage of every opportunity presented to him, most noticeably on lead single Bad & Boujee, Offset became the obvious Kelly. Unfortunately though, that left Takeoff in the rain as the one member who didn’t see the most exposure and honestly didn’t deliver very memorable verses. This is most obvious on the track Casting Call, which heavily features Takeoff. This was supposed to be his track, his chance to shine, and it just didn’t happen. Maybe this will all change when Migos release a new mixtape later this year and have another global success that features Takeoff on fire, but for now, he’s the Michelle Williams and will have to watch his cohorts dominate the rap headlines and bask in all the glory.
Before I give my score, I want there to be a bit of an understanding. I wouldn’t grade Schindler’s List on how hard it makes me laugh and I wouldn’t grade Caddyshack on how often it makes me cry. I would grade it based on it’s ability to accomplish it’s intentions. CULTURE’s intention is to get me to turn up. It’s not trying to be lyrically dense or send any political message. It just wants it’s listeners to have fun and it definitely succeeded. It had more than a few missteps along the way, so it’s far from a perfect album, but it achieved what it set out to and deserves to be scored as such. Now, I’m gonna go listen to Deadz about a thousand more times.
